


The story stays the same.

by Kingknome



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Character of Color, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 02:08:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14415348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingknome/pseuds/Kingknome
Summary: His sister is half tangled In one of her own machines yards away, slowly bleeding to death, and there is nothing T'Challa can do. The last words of N'Jadaka Erik Stevens ring in his ears;"Your father should have left me there."





	The story stays the same.

T'Challa stands over the body of his cousin, a boy who had been a brother to him, and grieves. His sister is half tangled In one of her own machines yards away, slowly bleeding to death, and there is nothing T'Challa can do. The last words of N'Jadaka Erik Stevens ring in his ears;  
  
_"Your father should have left me there."_

The three of them had grown up together, but always there had been a distance between them and their cousin N'Jadaka. His father's unexplained disappearance, an american accent, xenocentric in his passions, in a land where strangers were mistrusted. His first formative years when children learned to keep Wakanda secret, are lost to America's Saturday morning cartoons. Always N'Jadaka would interrupt their tutors to ask "when can we show our true ourselves to the world?", never accepting the state's isolationist policy.

As they grew, leaking Shuri's inventions slowly to the world was not enough.

Nakia's secret war dog missions were not enough.

T'Challa's diplomatic missions were not enough.

The King's silence was not enough.

N'Jadaka leaves his nation behind, back to America, seeking out his mother's people, searching for his own way in life. Instead he finds a shattered tribe half are incarcerated or drugged. His mother, murdered before could remember her, his Auntie's each struggling in their own way, but still welcoming him with open arms. He has more cousins here, older and younger, and it's a warm welcome. But they're worried, the land around them is changing hands faster than they can keep up with. The rents are rising, the blocks they've lived in for decades taken over by young white families. A whole tribe of people being scattered across the suburbs of California. He tries to give them money, but they reject it when he claims his it is his father's inheritance. Too late he remembers that here his father is not a missing prince, but a fugitive drug lord.

When T'Challa became king, and the world does not change, N'Jadaka askes once more if Wakanda could show it's true self to the world. T'Challa, still uncomfortable with his new  throne, declines.

That is all the warning they get, before N'Jadaka, turns on them. The civil war that follows was only newsworthy because nobody expects such a poor African nation to have such tremendous firepower. They manage to keep the power struggle mostly within Wakanda's borders, but the secrets of Wakanda are out, and the country shattered. The world arrives at their doorstep before the dust settles, looking for secrets, and scraps. N'Jadaka is dead, but he got what he always wanted, exposure, and a nation held accountable. His last words haunt T'Challa .

_"He should have left me there."_

For most such words would have been a curse for the rest of their lives. But T'Challa has made strange friends over the years. So he seeks out Doctor Strange to turn back the Sands of Time, and spare his brother. Eventually Strange agrees, and retwists the world so that the King of Wakanda abandons his nephew. But Time is strong, and little else changes. N'Jadaka becomes Erik, who is known as Killmonger. He still believes in the freedom of information. He still hates injustice and unfairness. He still starts a war.

This time when T'Challa kills his cousin, he sees only a could have been; his sister is safe above him, cheering. The world is shown the wonders of Wakanda, it's all Killmonger could have hoped for. In this world he chooses to die in the sunset, and T'Challa is content to let him go.

**Author's Note:**

> I liked the Black Panther movie, but I thought it all ended a little too neatly. Then I thought, what if the movie is the fix-it? I couldn't imagine a king being like "oh look, a nephew.... let's just forget about him forever."  
> I think Killmonger is a very interesting character, and could be argued to be the good guy gone wrong. All he wants is freedom of information and to overthrow a king who won't share.  
> I am very interested in redeeming him as a character, or exploring what his life would have been like after his father disappeared. I imagine his mother to be dead; that he was raised by Aunties who probably had lives and families of their own. I imagine plenty of his role models would have been arrested for walking-while-black, or for for side hustling a little weed.... I can see him being a traumatized "problem" kid, who gets shuffled from sofa to sofa until he ends up in the military....


End file.
